Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [26]
Taking on a teaching position in Thailand elevates your status from forgettable tourist to honourable guest, and it gives you insight and access into a community pleased to have you. Teachers in Thailand are revered professionals and a foreigner who speaks Thai is often assumed to hold this position, which in turn encourages Thais to be on their ‘Sunday-best’ behaviour.
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You can help villagers create jobs in their backyards by buying locally produced coffee, textiles and handicrafts.
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Finding a teaching job is fairly easy, as native English speakers are always in demand. But finding an experience that suits your interests takes some research. If you want more of a cultural challenge than just a job overseas, look into programs in rural areas where English is limited and foreigners are few. In these situations, you’ll learn Thai more quickly and observe a way of life with deeper connections to the past.
The following volunteer opportunities are subdivided into their regional placement locations and should be contacted for details on position placements and program costs.
Northeastern Thailand
Most volunteer opportunities in the northeast work in rural schools in the country’s agricultural heartland.
LemonGrass Volunteering (08 1977 5300; www.lemongrass-volunteering.com) is a Thai-run organisation that links volunteers teaching English in classrooms and student camps around the Surin area.
Open Mind Projects (0 4241 3578; www.openmindprojects.org; 856/9 Mu 15, Th Prachak, Nong Khai) offers a lengthy list of volunteering positions, including IT positions, community-based ecotourism projects and English-teaching assignments in schools, temples and orphanages. All volunteers get an ambitious three-day training program before beginning their work.
Travel to Teach (08 4246 0351; www.travel-to-teach.org; 1161/2 Soi Chitta Panya, Th Nong Khai-Phon Phisai, Nong Khai) offers flexible volunteering positions from two weeks to six months in schools, English camps or in temples teaching monks. Volunteers receive teacher training and there are homestay options and placements in Nong Khai, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai.
Volunthai (www.volunthai.com; 86/124 Soi Kanprapa, Bang Sue, Bangkok) is a homey operation that places volunteers in teaching positions at rural schools with homestay accommodation. No previous teaching experience is necessary and the program is best suited for cultural chameleons who want to experience a radically different way of life.
Northern Thailand
Northern Thailand, especially Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, has a number of volunteer opportunities working with disadvantaged hill-tribe groups. Chiang Mai and Mae Sot also have distressed communities of Burmese refugees and migrants needing access to schooling and health care.
Akha Association for Education and Culture in Thailand (Afect; 0 5371 4250, 08 1952 2179; www.akhaasia.multiply.com; 468 Th Rimkok, Chiang Rai) runs a Life Stay program in which volunteers live and work in an Akha village with a local family. Depending on the agricultural season, the days can be quite physical: working in the fields, helping build a house or gathering food in the forest. Stays are from seven days, and places are limited so it is best to arrange in advance of travel. Proceeds from Life Stay are put back into the community for health and education programs.
Cultural Canvas Thailand (08 6920 2451; www.culturalcanvas.com; Chiang Mai) unites volunteers with positions in a variety of Chiang Mai–based social-justice organisations, such as migrant learning centres and hill-tribe schools. Time commitments vary from one-day art workshops to month-long stints teaching English.
Hill Area and Community Development Foundation (0 5371 5696; www.hadf.or.th; 129/1 Mu 4, Th Pa-Ngiw, Soi 4, Rop Wiang, Chiang Rai) helps hill tribes deal with problems